


Daughter of His Soul

by OnyxStitches



Category: Mercy Thompson Series - Patricia Briggs
Genre: Can you believe that neither of Mercy's foster parents have tags, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Gen, Mostly Bran's POV, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Series, Vague allusion to Mercy and Adam's future relationship, pre-Moon Called, some reference to Mercy and Sam's past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 14:58:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14114835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnyxStitches/pseuds/OnyxStitches
Summary: Bran Cornick accepted the baby walker into his town because a young woman with a kind heart and tear filled eyes had begged him, and it was the honorable thing to do. He kept her because love is a force all its own, and the mischievous coyote was someone he grew to care for. A look at Bran's many feelings for his little stray, from the day he got her until the start of Moon Called.





	Daughter of His Soul

**Author's Note:**

> As always a huge thank you to my awesome beta reader and all around plot wrangler [JannelleSaDiablo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JannelleSaDiablo) for all her hard work.

It starts with a blonde woman standing on his doorstep. She’s holding a baby dark enough for its indian heritage to show through. Pardon, native american heritage, he believed was the politically correct term of the decade. For a moment he thinks it might be Charles’, and he suddenly finds himself pondering if he’s a grandfather. If so he and Charles will be having a very awkward conversation.

Luckily he isn’t a grandfather. He’s sure of that because before the woman can speak the baby goes from human to coyote in barely a blink. The pup squirms right out of its mother’s arms and tumbles to the ground. It’s easy for Bran to catch the coyote pup because the baby cloths are tangled around it.

He calmly extracts the pup from the cloths and holds it up. Now this is familiar. A remnant from when he first came to this content, and the people who had claimed it before. He had thought them all gone.

“It has been many years since I last saw one of these.” He tells the woman.

She watches him hold her pup warily, but does not attempt to reclaim the child from him. “My great uncle is a werewolf.” She tells him with a voice that barely trembles, but he can smell her fear. “He said you might be able to help me with her.”

The pup, a girl then, snuffles him and sneezes as if startled by the scent she’s taken in. He supposes the child has never been so near a wolf before. Perhaps, even this young, the coyote knows she is in the presence of a much larger predator?

“I know a couple that could take her in.” Bran said after a moment's thought. Bryan and his human wife hadn’t managed to have children after many years of trying. They would be thrilled to have one dropped on their doorstep. “However she would have to live here full time.”

The woman frowns at that. “I can’t move here. I’m in university.”

“You could leave her here alone.” He points out. “There is nothing stopping you from visiting.” He doesn’t think she will though. It’s obvious that she isn’t comfortable with her child from the way she hasn’t tried to touch the pup since it shifted. If he has read the situation right she’ll leave the child here and never see it again. That doesn’t really shock him. Most humans aren't ready for the supernatural.

It takes some negotiations, but eventually the child is left in Bran’s care. The fact that the young lady, named Margie, stopped to negotiate at all surprises him. He’d expect the girl to pass him her ‘unnatural’ child and book it. Instead she’d argued and demanded until the child’s happiness had been as assured as she could make it. She’d demanded contact info for him and the chosen foster parents, and Bran was now in possession of a number to contact her at should the child ever want to know her mother.

He decides to give the baby to Bryan and Evelyn as soon as possible. The Marrok does not have time for children. Especially children who turn into coyotes. He has better things to do with his time.

* * *

The child’s name is Mercedes. Evelyn shortens it to Mercy within the first hour of knowing her. Bryan’s human mate arrived swiftly after receiving his call to take the child. Bran spends ten minutes making sure she knows to call him if anything goes wrong. The child was given into his care afterall. It would be dishonorable to pass her to another without insuring her safety and happiness. It's simply the proper thing to do.

Of course he’s interested in the child, he tells himself. How often do you see walkers anymore? She’s fascinating because her people are all but extinct, and were terribly secretive even before the vampires declared open season on them. It has nothing to do with how long it has been since anyone dared let a child crawl all over him.

* * *

The beast is interested by the pup. It's too stupid to fear him, which makes it far too stupid to be wandering about by itself. It should be den locked for a while yet. At least until it can learn to hunt for itself, but its birther has chosen to abandon it instead.

He fails to understand her reason for such an action. The pup is hail and hearty, if foolish, and has no obvious deformities. Why cast as side a perfectly good pup?

Well, if the bitch will not have it then the beast will. The pup is brave and fierce in her defence of her own. If she were a wolf she would have made a good pack member, but she is not. She is not pack, can never be pack. The beast understands this. She is still one of his though.

* * *

The child is a hellion. She picks fights with beings strong enough to snap her like a twig and fakes apology just long enough to plan her next assault. His sons are amused, and Bryan deals well with the beastling. She springs chaos around her like demons do violence, but he has to admit Aspen Creek hasn’t been this interesting in years.

She isn’t afraid of him either, which is nice. Even the human children swiftly learn to fear him, for all they love him too. Not the little walker though. She tugs his tail as sure as any agent of chaos ever does, the little mischief maker, and he finds it soothes him. To be Bran the adult, the father figure, rather than Bran the Marrok is a blessing he had not realized he was craving.

* * *

Interestingly enough it is him, not Bryan, she runs to after a visit from her mother. The woman (frail, human, unimportant) has done nothing cruel or wrong. No, Mercy's tears spring more from an understanding of past insults than anything recent.

"Why doesn't she want me?" The child asks him, and the bard is at a loss for words. How could he explain her mother's decision to the child in a way she'd understand?

He almost wishes she'd gone to Bryan after all.

Almost but not quite. The trust she'd shown him in revealing such an emotional weakness is precious. He wouldn't wish it away no matter the awkwardness it causes him.

He tries his best to soothe the heart wounds her mother’s choice leaves her with, but tells no lies. Years from now he knows the girl will treasure the brutal truth more than any sugared lie he could spin. Still, the pain in her scent burns his nose for hours after she returns to her foster parents home.

* * *

The wolf is pleased she runs to him for protection. His other pups are either grown or dead, and it's nice to care for a little one again. His little Mercy is so sweet and soft on the inside, and a part of him wishes she were his child in flesh. Better that she isn’t though. His mate would not have let such a fragile annoyance live she’d been his in blood as well. Bad enough he loved a little stray more than his wife. Leah would have never left the child alive if Mercy had been his descendant as well as his collected child.

Still, he's careful how he interacts with her. Coyotes are much smaller than wolves, and more fragile. Her size is a weakness his human half will teach her how to overcome with words, knowledge, and speed. 

He'll teach her to hunt and run. It's all he can offer this pup for now.

* * *

She retreats inside herself after Bryan’s death. The colorful whirl of a girl lost to a pale shadow who ghosts about like she’s being blown by the wind rather than moving at will. He fears her spirit is broken so he takes her into his own home for a while.

That is both a mistake and an unmitigated success. The cruel words of his mate awaken a spark of rage like nothing he’s ever seen in the girl. When half of all of Leah’s shoes disappear, one each day for weeks, he smiles. The expense of replacing them all to sooth his mate will be sizable, even to his bank accounts, but it is good to see the girl alive again.

Still, perhaps he’ll have Samuel and Charles keep an eye on her. Surely one of them can keep her out of trouble?

Samuel likes children. He’ll be thrilled to have another to look after. His eldest is one of the few wolves he can trust not to hurt her due to her differences.

Charles can teach her about her heritage. It’ll be good for her to explore that side of her. His youngest has been reclusive lately. Perhaps having someone to share his heritage will help?

He doesn’t ponder why he puts so much effort into looking after one little orphan. She’s pack, that's all. A good alpha looks after everyone in his pack no matter how strange or troublesome.

* * *

The child is a walker, one who speaks to the dead. He knows this, but did not truly understand it until he overhears a one-sided conversation between her and a friend of his nearly a decade dead. He ponders if this is part of her heritage before brushing it off. Where she gets the skill is unimportant. Playing with the dead is dangerous.

It’s far too easy for the living to get lost among ghosts.

If the next several tales of times and heros of old stress how dangerous the dead are, then no one but him will know why. The lying ghosts who seek to drag the living down with them hide among the wandering dead, and Bran will have her warned against them all. Charles understand the danger of ghosts. He will help.

The dead will not steal from the living one of the few good things to come to him this century.

* * *

The call comes from his frantic eldest son in the afternoon. It takes a bit to get the full story from him. Apparently Sam had jokingly dared Mercy to steal his (mates) Porsche and take it for a drive. At first he thinks to brush it off. The roads are only covered with a light layer of snow and have been recently plowed. Any driver worth their salt in Montana can navigate those conditions. He’ll wait until she brings it back and then ground her. This will be a useful lesson in authority and covering one's tracks for the little teen. If he makes the lecture both public and embarrassing then Leah will not be able to enact her own revenge without losing face.

Then an unpleasant thought worms its way into his mind. Mercy doesn’t know how to drive.

As if summoned by his growing horror a second call comes in. His son has located Mercy. She’s crashed.

The run over to the wreckage is a blur in Bran’s memory. He can hardly even remember leaving the house but soon he is next to the burning mess of twisted metal. It's the sort of wreck that even a werewolf would have trouble walking easily away from, and his little coyote is far more mortal than one of his wolves.

He wrenches the twisted frame apart and tears his way to her. Mercy is curled up in the driver’s seat shaken but mostly unharmed with no visible major wounds. Her eyes are dazed (possible concussion, brain injuries are serious for mortals) and she’s curled up in the crumple zone.

He snarls at her without thought. The fear and rage cracks the cage around the beast in the way few things ever do, and it nearly staggers him. She blinks in confusion; glass shards and snowflakes caught in her hair. It's the first time he truly realizes she's mortal.

Mercy is mortal, fragile, and going to leave him sooner than even her tiny lifespan would demand. If not pulled to heel the girl child will burn herself out as most bright things do. There is a reason most heros and figures of lore lived fast and hard. Those who bring change rarely survive it.

The realization is unpleasant for the wolf king. Rarely does he think on the mortality and fragility of those he cares about. Now this tiny little coyote has forced him to consider all of it. Although he'd rather brush it all off and forget that he'll lose almost everyone he cares about, Bran finds that now he cannot. Time is Bran’s enemy, never his alley.

The wolf inside of him roars in useless fury at the idea of losing another club. The thought that the fragile little thing Mercy is can be taken from him at any moment angers the beast like little else. It wants to shred any risk to his pup, but nothing can be done to defeat the threat of time. Instead he lifts the female from the shredded wreckage and carries her back to his den.

His mate is displeased, but when isn't she nowadays. As for Mercy and cars? Well, he'll simply have her taught to drive by someone who can discourage her from speeding about. Maybe he'll have Charles do it. If anyone can scare road safety into the coyote it would be his youngest son.

* * *

It is said that men with daughters are constantly chasing males away from them. Bran simply didn't expect for one of those males to be his eldest son.

Not that he can really blame Samuel for wanting Mercy, but he does understand that the boy's heart is not fully with his daughter. Instead it's focused on the children he's hesitant to believe the two will ever have together.

When they were younger, human, such a marriage would have been commonplace. Now however Bran simply cannot allow his son to do his daughter such an insult. All of his pups, even the one not of his blood, deserve the happiness a true mate can offer. Mercy does not deserve a mate who only sees her for the children she can bare.

In truth he's afraid that if he allows Samuel what the boy wants then Mercy will grow to hate them all. He cannot stand to see his pups copy Leah and him in a dance of perpetual misery. Mercedes deserves a mate who will love her for who she is rather than what she is. Samuel is not that mate. Maybe when he was a young man. Rather ironically the man his son had been before his mother had broken them both was exactly the sort of man Mercy would have excelled with. The son lost in all but his grim memories would have treasured Mercy as she deserves. The son he has now cannot see the swifty blooming woman through the linger dregs of teenagerhood.

That is why he speaks carefully chosen words of cruelty and sends his youngest running for the woman who birthed her. It burns him to thrust the verbal knife so deeply, but in the end he knows it to be what is best. Samuel will either crush Mercy’s bright soul, or cripple her self worth, and he cannot allow either tragedy to take place. He must protect his daughter of his heart from the son of his blood. Even if it kills him inside.

His son he scolds and forbids from chasing after her. It's a mistake on Bran’s part. The pining white wolf is despondent. For a while he fears his eldest will follow his old friend's footsteps into the lake. Instead the boy heads for the plains and disappears. 

The pack bond snaps under Samuel's will. Mercy never had one since she wasn't a wolf. In one year he's lost them both, and he mourns.

This had never been his intent but there's little he can do now to change his actions. Instead they must all live with his decisions.

* * *

His eldest runs for the warmer lands below their pack’s territory and swiftly disappears. His name and bank accounts, all the resources his son has gathered over the years are left untouched. Samuel Cornick might as well be dead. Whatever, whoever his son is busy being is not known to Bran.

Samuel is good at going underground, but Mercedes is not. He keeps an eye on her mostly from a distance. It's not difficult tracking her mother and her's bank accounts.

He's proud when she gets into college and even prouder when she finishes her degree. He always knew she was smart, his little coyote.

* * *

Bran rules all the wolves of North America. With that sort of power it isn't hard to grease a few wheels. If that greasing means his adopted pup is safer in the end, then all the better. It isn't hard to find a child of one of his wolves attending the same campus. A word from her father and some cash from him encourages her to check in on his wayward coyote every once and while.

Scholarships are awarded to insure Mercy has an easier time in school. A teacher who sneers racist remarks at his coyote finds herself out of a job. A boy with a nasty criminal history and troublesome intentions finds himself being warned away by a member of the nearest pack after showing to much interest.

The strings he pulls are minor, but it puts him more at ease even as he hides his tracks. The child would be displeased with him if she discovered his meddling. Mercedes desires her independence too much for him to strip it from her. His youngest would not want to ride on his coattails. No, the girl is to independent for that. The child has fully left the nest and he cannot coddle her anymore.

Still he watches. She's safe. That's all that matters in the end.

* * *

When she finally settles it's in a pack free place. She's done this on purpose; he knows. Mercy is quick witted and sly. She suspects his interference in her life outside of Aspen Creek. This is her way of insuring he cannot not pull her strings. He puts all her careful planning to waste by supplanting a pack into the area when she's too deeply rooted to move out.

He's proud of her for owning her own business, but it ties her down so she can't run again. It's simply too much of an opportunity to waste. He’s always been a patient hunter, and a decade is barley any time at all to Bran.

Adam he picks for three reasons: he's old enough to have decent manners, strong enough to hold all of the tri-cities, and his pack is out growing its former territory. It's squishing up against its three nearest neighbours and needs more room. This move will benefit both his responsibility to a pack under his protection and his need to keep the pup safe.

It doesn't hurt that Adam is married and faithful. He'll stay away from Mercy, and keep his packmates from her too. After all, Adam has a daughter. He understands why the Marrok would want an eye kept on his most rebellious pup.

* * *

It isn’t until she drives up with a wounded alpha in her car that he begins to second guess his decision.

**Author's Note:**

> The WIP title for this piece was Daughter Not of Blood. By the end of it it clearly no longer fit, so I changed it. Also I started writing this in the summer of 2015. Clearly it took awhile.


End file.
